This recipe for foolproof Mongolian Beef makes it easy to make your favorite take out dish at home. It’s a recipe that tastes just like PF Changs!
I talked in this recent post of my FOF (fear of frying) and how I vowed to overcome that fear. With this recipe, I have taken on that challenge. Crispy fried strips of beef (so crispy!) with a delicious, thick, sweet sauce. The color is so lovely and the flavors so great. I could NOT wait to devour the leftovers the next day.
It really turned out to not be that scary. My fears of the batter not sticking and the meat being raw inside were tackled with a couple of simple steps.
First, I started with my beef. Placing it in the freezer for 15 minutes really helps firm up the steak so that you can get a nice, thin slice. I figured that with slices this thin, it’s really hard to not fully cook the meat even with just a quick frying. Check one!
Second, my method for coating the strips in cornstarch, really seemed to work quite well. I poured the cornstarch into a large Ziploc bag, added my beef, and shook until the pieces were well coated. I then poured the strips out into a large mesh strainer set over the sink and shook further to get all of the excess cornstarch off of the pieces (you could also use a colander). They turned out to be evenly coated but not overly covered in the cornstarch. Check two – No excess batter to fall off!
Fry these pieces in batches so that they’re in a single layer, flipping once or twice, to brown evenly on both sides. These crispy bites of goodness are then tossed with the yummy sauce until they’re beautifully coated. A perfect accompaniment to a bowl of rice. Sprinkle some green onions on top for added flavor and break out those chopsticks!
Foolproof Mongolian Beef
Ingredients
Beef
- 2 lb NY strip steak or flank steak
- ½ cup cornstarch
- ½ cup vegetable oil
Sauce
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 cup soy sauce
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons ginger minced
- 1 cup water
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 3 green onions chopped
Instructions
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Place the beef in the freezer 15 minutes before ready to begin. This will help firm it up for slicing.
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Slice the beef against the grain in thin, bite-sized strips, about 1/4 inch thick.
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Add the cornstarch to a Ziploc bag. Place the meat in the bag and shake, until well coated. Pour out into a strainer or colander and shake off the excess cornstarch.
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In a small sauce pan add the oil, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, water, rice wine vinegar and red pepper flakes. Stir and cook over medium-high heat until sauce thickens (15-20 minutes). Set aside.
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Meanwhile, in a large skillet heat the oil over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add some of the beef in a single layer and cook until browned. You will need to do this in batches. Set aside the browned beef on a plate lined with a paper towel and tented with foil.
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Return all beef to skillet and pour sauce over the beef. Stir until coated and cook for a couple more minutes.
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Serve over rice and garnish with green onions.
Wine Pairings for Mongolian Beef:
- A nice, fruity red wine such as a Zinfandel or Grenache will pair nicely with the flavors in this beef dish.
- If you’re looking for a white option, Rieslings are always great matches for bold, somewhat spicy dishes.
OMG!!!! Look at that good looking Mongolian beef you have here; if you must know, it makes me want to lick my screen 🙂 Thank you so much also for all the tips. It looks so so so yummy, Erin 🙂
Can I make this simply because it would be the prettiest dinner EVER?
Well of course you can Dorothy! I think you’ll love the flavors too though!
A gorgeous main dish! Forget take-out, I’ll take your version any day!
Thank you Melanie – Enjoy!
This looks like something my family would love (and I would too). Pinning and adding it to the menu plan!
Michelle – This is definitely a family friendly dish. I hope you LOVE it!
In your instructions, step 4, it says add garlic “water”. The ingredients list says minced garlic. So I am confused. I am one of those people that can’t cook unless I follow the recipe to the letter! Can you explain what you mean by garlic water?
Oops – Thanks for catching this typo Hollee. The instructions have been revised above. It should have read “add garlic, ginger, water…” Hope this helps! I’d love to hear how it turns out! Cheers!
This looks soooo good! Mongolian beef is one of my favorite takeout dishes and making it at home sounds so appealing because I know I won’t feel blah after dinner from MSG.
I agree Rachel – I always enjoy making “take out” at home. That way I can control the ingredients!
I’ve made this a couple of times and the flavor was great, but both times i overcooked my meat too much. I have very little experience with frying- my question is, is this the type of frying where the meat is placed on an oiled skillet, or is it submerged in oil? I placed it on the skillet and either that was wrong, or I left it for too long (although I didn’t think I was!). I’m trying this again tonight and will work in smaller batches to get it off the heat quicker- hopefully it will be more tender. Any tips?
Hi Allison. Because the beef strips are so thinly sliced, they cook very quickly, and it definitely can be easy to overcook them. With 1/2 cup of oil used, your skillet should be well coated with the oil. It’s a shallow frying technique, so they should be just about covered by the oil. Definitely cook in small batches, and be sure that the pieces are in a single layer in the pan. I hope this helps!!! Good luck Allison. I’d love to hear back on whether things turned out better this time!
Erin…this looks sweet and sticky and fabulous. I’ve been on the hunt for an easy, delicious mongolian beef recipe that is easy and I think this is the one. Yum!
I love this type of fried beef. I know it’s not the healthiest option, but for a treat, it’s so incredibly tasty. The tips about freezing the beef first and coating it in cornstarch are excellent.
I think this is what’s for dinner tonight. It looks delicious and my kids will love it!
Thanks Stephanie! Kids will definitely love this dish!
I loved this recipe and it was very easy to make – however it was very very salty even though I used reduced salt soy sauce.
I’ve made this over and over and even my picky eaters LOVE it! Thank you. On busy days I put the roast in a crock pot and pour the sauce over it. 6-8 hours later it’s so tender and flavorful! One of my favorite recipes.
I’m so glad to hear that your family loves this Mongolian Beef Jenny! Cheers!
I made this and it tasted weird to me. Really salty and a weird after taste. I think the problem was the amount of soy sauce. I’ll have to try again with less soy sauce.
Hands down a great recipe we all loved it
I made this for dinner last night and received rave reviews. My sauce didn’t thicken up as much as I thought it should but it still worked out great!
So happy to hear that you liked it Janine!
Overall this was pretty tasty. I would absolutely recommend low sodium soy sauce though. I didn’t (bc I didn’t have it) and the dish is almost too salty to eat.
Made this tonight for dinner. Was sooo yummy! I couldn’t find flank steak so used flat iron steak and it worked great. I used low sodium soy sauce but I think the regular would work fine too as I was wanting a tad more salt. Also added more red chili flakes to increase the heat. I had to use about 1/8 – 1/4 cup more cornstarch to coat all my meat, and I ended up having to add some oil to the pan by my 3rd batch so there was enough to fry the meat. Then I poured out the excess oil, and used the sauce to deglaze the stuck bits from the pan before I added the meat back. This one’s a keeper!
I’m so happy to hear that you liked it Jill!